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Schnedier
Haus reconstruction
- 1816: Schneider Haus is built. For generations it stays in the
family.
- July 29, 1966: The house is recognized as a provincial historic
site
- March 1975: Joseph Schneider's direct descendants sell the house
to the City of Kitchener
- April 1975: Kitchener sells the house to the Waterloo Regional
Heritage Foundation
- 1975: An architectural study of the house is commissioned
- 1975-1981: The house is restored to the 1850s period
- 1977: The house is declared an historical site under the Ontario
Heritage Act
- 1981: Now a heritage property and living museum, the house
becomes the property of the Region of Waterloo who take over maintenance
and staffing.
Stepping Back from 1975
The architectural assessment recognized the following differences
between the 1975 house and its condition in 1850. Many of the changes
had been made either when the house was partitioned in the 1920s
or to modernize it.
| 1975 |
1850 |
| 8 inch roof shingles |
12 inch cedar shingles |
|
When the house was partitioned in the 1920s, a second front
door was added. |
Front door and window |
| Shutters were painted green |
Clapboard was painted white with grey shutters and steps |
| Metal gutters and rain water leaders |
Wood gutters and leaders |
| Window wells, retaining walls, gas tanks |
Windows were made of 7” x 9” lights. On the
first floor they were arranged in 12 x 6 panels; on the second
they were in 6 x 6 panels per window |
| Asbestos siding below side porch |
None |
| Shed attached at rear; most other outbuildings had been
removed |
Privy, smoke house, dry house, spring house, well/hand-pump |
| |
Hitching posts for buggies |
| 2 feet of land fill had been added around the house with
a retaining wall to hold it in place |
Garden was a 4-square style in the front of the house
with a fence, gate and trees. |
| Attic partitioned |
Attic used for drying food and storage |
| |
Floors were pine |
| In the 1920s the ceilings were plastered |
The girls bedroom had no ceiling. |
The following repairs were needed
- Chimneys rebuilt above the roof line
- Nails cleaned
- Lathe and plaster removed from wood partition between bedrooms
- Woodwork refinished
- Window sashes replaced
- Stucco repaired
- Front porch railings removed
- Re-establish door and window openings to 1850s
1850s
The 1850s house was also unlike the one built by Joseph Schneider
in 1816. New finishes and paint colours, ideas borrowed from English
Victorian neighbours, and the need to accomodate a growing and prosperous
family led to a number of aesthetic changes in the house. The rough
cast (stucco-like) exterior walls were covered with clapboard. Everything
was painted white except for the stairs and shutters which are painted
grey, in keeping with fashions of the day.
In Between
As the parents aged, a few additions were made to the house. A
granny suite was added on the first floor.
1816-1820
Joseph Schneider quickly prospered on his 400 acre farm, adding
a sawmill, and leasing a corner of the farm to a blacksmith and
one room in the house to a weaver.
>> Scneider Haus History
>>
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